5 October 2014 – Day 9 ( Bumthang Tshechu )
Perky breakfast
At 7 AM, the place was foggy and
cold, convincing me a few more minutes in bed would do my itinerary no harm.
Around 08:30 AM did we finally glimpse the sun and the valley sky cleared out.
First things first, we booked ourselves tickets to Thimphu (355 Nu each). The
Bumthang – Phuentsholing 16 hour bus has been discontinued, though that had
been our first preference. Café Perk was our first halt over for the day to
grab some wifi and food. Ordered Ginger honey tea and Swiss cheese sandwiches
(comes with fries and apple salad). The owner, a young lady who also had studied in Garden City College, Bengaluru shared her life experiences with us and also things to do around including the Burning Lake nearby. There was a cycle tours agency but he would probably be at the festival. We asked her how does she spend time outside the café and she said the nightlife keeps her going. Both of us laughed “what nightlife when everything closes at 8 PM?” She mentioned everyone closes at 7-8, goes home, has dinner with family and then once the young ones are tucked away, they head out dance bars and karaoke bars , at times upto 2 AM. That was a relevation to us and she suggested we should do a dance bar.
Open door policy
As we tried figuring out what to
do, we decided to get a water bottle. We walked into the first shop to find it
no one in. Guessing the owner was next door, we walked into that shop and found
no one. This continued for 4 unlocked shops till the fifth one had an extremely
odd granny who had limited mobility. We understood from her that everyone had
gone for the festival. What surprised me was the level of trust everyone had, leaving their stores unlocked and heading to the temple a few kilometres away.
School kid talk
When in Rome, do as the Romans. A
shared cab guy honked at us pointing towards the general direction of the
Tamshing Lhakhang. We got in ( 40 Nu per person) to find it filled with school kids
ranging from 9th to 12th grade. Extremely excited seeing
foreigners, they took on me and Sash, two on one asking a million questions and
answering a million more. They had come over from a boarding school in Tang for
the festival. From the importance of loving one’s culture to how awesome
Bollywood is (yes, primarily Salman Khan) to who is good in math and who is the
mischievous one of the lot. What really caught my attention was when I asked
them their ambitions.
One of them with stars in his eyes proudly mentioned he
was working hard so that one day he can study at AIIMS, Delhi. His friends
concurred that he was the smartest one of the lot and everyone expected him to
make it there. They then focussed on giving us stories and backgrounds on the
various buildings and spots that went by. Jigme even asked me to add him of Facebook
writing down his pseudo name for him to find him with.
Chamkhar Tshechu
Chamkhar Tshechu
Compared to Thimphu. The festival
here was on an extremely small scale but in terms of spirits, they were on a
higher plane than the city folks. This was like the Cheers of festivals – where
everyone knows your name. We could get up real close to the performances,
literally 5 steps away from the dancers and could identify the intricacies of
the steps they followed which were different to each song. Outside the temple
courtyard, makeshift stalls had been put up selling refreshments though the
crowded stalls were the games stalls. They were playing card roulette where you
place bets on numbers and/or suits that could be drawn up. All games had some
variation of gambling / luck which probably is considered a skill. After a
while, we decided to walk down to the valley as we had time to kill and figured
the entire village wasn’t going to leave the festival anytime soon.
Walking down the country road
It was one of the best walks we
had undertaken on this trip. The sweeping panorama dotted with beautiful
buildings, a pleasant cold chill in the air backed by a warm sun (winter suns
are the best) and the sheer purity that all your senses felt from the quality
of air, the ambient noises of nature, the visual treats around , you get the
gist. We even could see the other domestic airport in Bhutan which is Bumthang
and as you can see from the photograph, I could cover it all in one frame. There is only one flight from Paro to Bathpalathang airport and costs almost USD 250 (USD,
not INR or Nu) per person. We also passed the Cheese factory, Fruit Jams outlet and the brewery. A lovely Swiss chalet was being given final touches in the brewery courtyard. The carpenter turned out to be from Siliguri and proudly displayed how everything was “Make In India” from the raw materials to his talent. Offering us his contact number, he said one of his sons was a carpenter in Bengaluru and could help with odd jobs there. He later took us around the entire chalet which would soon be a brew café starting a day after we left. He also showed us around the apiary where more than three tonnes of honey is produced annually.
A storm is coming, Mr. Wayne.
We got back to the village which is
literally built around one main highway and 2 by lanes. We decided to walk in
the other direction and see if we could get to Jakar dzong. We took a wrong
turn and continued walking uphill into a setting right out of Game of Thrones
as ravens circled around the entire area. We couldn’t find a single soul to
verify if we were walking the right way but decided to walk for another fifteen
minutes else turn back if the road continued winding uphill. We made it to the Court of Justice at the top of the hill which is when we realised we had taken a wrong turn somewhere (we started off on the wrong route J we’d realise later) . Along with ravens for company, we could see and hear a huge thunderstorm fast approaching from the other side. We guesstimated it was about half an hour away so we literally had to jog down as there was no place to run for shelter we got stuck midway. Since in these regions you have a wider and clearer view of the storm, they look and sound a lot scarier and violent. By the time we reached the bridge, thick rain drops were hitting us hard but they gave us a breather till we got to a shop when all hell broke loose and continued that dramatic performance for the next forty five minutes. When it slowed down for a bit, we rushed across to Café Perk.
The Ladakhi guide
This time we had company, a huge
German group we had seen earlier at the festival was also there. Their guide
Angdu came over to chat up. He was pleased at how we had managed to cover quite
a bit without a guide and told us some more info about the festival above. He
turned out to be from Leh & Ladakh and when we let out a wow, he laughed. “That’s
the reaction I get today. A few decades ago when I was sent for schooling in
Bangalore, we were called junglee people by his teachers and classmates.” He
explained how they’d hide their TV sets when Indian tourists came calling to
Ladakh because else they’d just sit in the room most of the day watching TV,
crib about cable and ordering food instead of staying outside and exploring the
countryside. He hoped that had changed since the past ten years when he had
moved over to Germany and now conducted Himalayan expeditions for folks from
there.
Drayang - The Dance Bars
We checked out a drayang (dance
bar) at 6:30 PM but it was extremely early by even their standards as they hadn’t
even set up for the night. We ended up doing some souvenir shopping at the
local stores. Got ourselves local incense sticks (pretty good quality at 50 Nu
per pack) , Bhutan stamps, fridge magnets ( about 100 to 150 Nu per piece)
bargaining them down to sum total of 500 Nu from 650 Nu. After dumping our shopping,
we headed back to the drayang. Being from India, dance bars have a very sleazy
context in our heads. After Café Perk’s owner highlighted to us that it was a family destination, we thought it was worth a shot experiencing this cultural perspective. There was just 2 other guys and the dancers. Fully clothed in their bright kiris, the girls dance on Hindi , English and Dzongkha tracks requested by the audience and can even sing if you ask. We noticed the other two guys giving their picks and even getting on stage once for one of the popular tracks. Each request is worth 100 Nu and you can ask which girl you’d prefer danced and the girls would add you to their tip book. Probably sales based incentive bonuses and its book keeping. After 4 – 5 odd performances, we decided we probably picked the wrong day or were still too early, so we headed out.
EPL and soccer
Our hotel owner was watching the
Chelsea – Arsenal game (though a Manchester United fan himself) and we asked if
we could watch along. His family soon turned up having their dinner in the
restaurant now closed for outside service. After the game that Chelsea won 2-0,
we went to the Bhutan store to find a lot of fake soccer merchandise
(exemplifying the soccer craze this nation has) and a lot of authentic
Bhutanese handicraft, quite a bit way out of our budgets. All that walking had zonked us out and we decided to call it a night by 11 PM. Key points
Cafe Perk ($$) - Chamkhar town, Great food, nice and friendly owners, good wifi.
Tamshing Lhakhang - About 40 Nu person in shared taxi. Since it was festival season, there was a lot of thoroughfare
Bathpalathang Airport (Domestic) - Flights between Paro and Bathpalathang only.
Couple of stores in the town for souvenir shopping , few buildings down from Cafe Perk.
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